bind9 / named questions

[William H. Magill]

I am making a "double transition" here -- from Bind 8 running on Tru64 Unix to Bind 9 running on OSX via MacPorts.

I started bind9 (which one assumes means named) according to the install script directions:

>sudo port load bind9

Now i'm trying to make sense of what I'm seeing... or doing wrong.

> ps auxw | grep named
root      4419   0.0  0.6   623964  11588   ??  S     5:10PM   0:00.36 /opt/local/sbin/named -f
root      4417   0.0  0.0   611772    720   ??  Ss    5:10PM   0:00.39 /opt/local/bin/daemondo --label=bind9 --start-cmd /opt/local/sbin/named -f ; --restart-netchange --pid=exec
magill   60699   0.0  0.0   590736    308 s000  R+    3:21PM   0:00.00 grep named

The implication here is that named is running in the foreground (-f), not as a daemon.

But:
> launchctl list
PID	Status	Label
62440	-	0x102880.anonymous.launchctl
47636	-	0x1025f0.anonymous.bash
47635	-	0x205f60.anonymous.sshd
18	-	0x102440.anonymous.securityd
47600	-	0x205bd0.anonymous.sshd
47600	-	0x205860.anonymous.sshd
87154	-	0x102280.anonymous.DynDNSUpdaterSer
157	-	0x102c00.anonymous.cvmsServ
38606	-	com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent
68	-	0x20b600.anonymous.coreservicesd
-	0	edu.mit.Kerberos.CCacheServer
-	0	com.apple.TrustEvaluationAgent
-	0	com.apple.KerberosHelper.LKDCHelper
-	0	com.apple.gssd-agent
-	0	com.apple.FileSyncAgent
-	0	com.apple.datadetectors.compiler
-	0	com.apple.cvmsCompAgent_x86_64
-	0	com.apple.cvmsCompAgent_ppc
-	0	com.apple.cvmsCompAgent_i386
-	0	com.apple.launchctl.Background

I note that laucnchclt also does not show my MacPorts -- Apache/MySql/PhP installation, which is running as expected.

Question 1: It's not that (i don't think) named is not running, but I don't understand what I'm seeing.
       a) why the -f
       b) why nothing in launchctl

Historically, to update the zonefiles, etc. I would simply "HUP" named. However, it appears that
the "correct way" to do this under the MacPorts installation is the inverse of the start...

> sudo port unload bind9
> sudo port load bind9

Question 2: is that correct?

Other than those two questions, as far as I know everything is happy.
        The named.conf file and zonefiles all pass the respective named-check<...> tools.
I think named is responding correctly (I"m also transferring the domain delegation at the same time to DynDNS.com)
I get seemingly appropriate dig responses.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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magill at mcgillsociety.org
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